Traceability Matrix

Traceability Matrix

In a software development process, a traceability matrix is a table that correlates any two baselined documents that require a many to many relationship to determine
the completeness of the relationship. It is often used with high-level requirements (sometimes known as marketing requirements) and detailed requirements of the

software product to the matching parts of high-level design, detailed design, test plan, and test cases.

Description

A table that traces the requirements to the system deliverable component for that stage that responds to the requirement.
Size and Format

For each requirement, identify the component in the current stage that responds to the requirement. The requirement may be mapped to such items as a hardware
component, an application unit, or a section of a design specification.

Traceability matrices can be established using a variety of tools including requirements management software, databases, spreadsheets, or even with tables or hyperlinks in a word processor.

A traceability matrix is created by associating requirements with the work products that satisfy them. Tests are associated with the requirements on which they are
based and the product tested to meet the requirement.


Above is a simple traceability matrix structure. There can be more things included in a traceability matrix than shown. In traceability, the relationship of driver to
Satisfier can be one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many.

Traceability requires unique identifiers for each requirement and product. Numbers for products are established in a configuration management (CM) plan.

Traceability ensures completeness, that all lower level requirements come from higher level requirements, and that all higher level requirements are allocated to lower
level requirements. Traceability is also used to manage change and provides the basis for test planning.